In his speech before the United Nations earlier this year, President George W. Bush laid out a bold vision for a world free of trade barriers and trade-distorting subsidies and declared that "the surest path to greater wealth is greater trade".

The US is committed to that path, and believes the way to achieve it starts with the successful completion of trade talks under the World Trade Organisation's Doha Development Agenda. The leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised countries have described Doha as a unique opportunity to "broaden, deepen and extend the current economic expansion".